Whenever People Met Us
by fireeternal13
Summary: I'm Albus Potter. I changed because of the pressure of being Harry Potter's son. Scorpius Malfoy changed because of the pressure of being Draco Malfoy's son. Rose Weasley changed too. I'm not as clear about what happened there, and that's what I want to find out. Rated T, due to minor adult themes (could be upsetting) and adult language.


Whenever people met me, they would comment on how my looks were so similar to my father's. The newspaper would describe me as having my father's looks, and my mother's personality, but where did that leave me? How could I possibly make an impression on the world, if I was utterly unoriginal? Everyone already knew and loved my father and mother, so how was I important, if I was no different? I would forever live in the shadow of my father's looks, a mirror for the greatest hero of wizarding history. My mother was the seventh child of the Weasleys, and a daughter, no less, and she was invariably smart, witty and the only one who could keep my father in check, simultaneously a feisty, fantastic flyer and Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies. Both had fought in the Second Wizarding War, and had played vital parts in it. I couldn't live up to that. It was impossible. I was a name, rather than a person. So I changed.

I became sarcastic and cynical, dressing in dark clothes and cutting my hair differently with a charm I found in an old spell book. My mum and dad didn't comment. I knew they knew how I felt, and understood. They understood I wasn't rebelling against them, but society's idea of me. I made myself into a new person. One who could be recognised as Albus Potter; not Harry and Ginny Potter's second son. Some of my cousins understood; Rose was my biggest supporter and best friend. She felt pretty similarly to me, she had it perhaps even worse than I had, in fact. She was so like her mother in every way – brains, face and personality – except for her dark red hair like her father's, and her slap stick sense of humour that was undoubtedly from Ron Weasley. When she hit thirteen she changed as well, but not consciously like I had; she became introverted and quiet, always reading. She shrank away from society, and people and the family. She was still kind and intelligent, but she didn't talk, or laugh or even cackle at the muggle movie we were watching. Everyone forgot about clever little Rosie Weasley. Even me.

My best mate was Scorpius. He was also a supporter of my change in personality and looks. Poor old Scorpius had it the same as me, but instead of everyone loving him and fawning over how alike his famous father he was, society turned it's back on him, unless it was to look in disgust at his platinum blonde hair and sharp features, that was so similar to that of Draco Malfoy, and his father Lucius. Scorpius changed too, but it wasn't immediate. Subtly, between third year and the end of fourth, Scorpius' hair lost that platinum quality that people hated, as it went darker, more natural and golden. He laughed more, and his features seemed to soften; when I looked at old photos I would marvel at the extreme difference in both demeanour and looks that both Scorpius and I had. It was weird, how we'd all changed in different ways, but intrinsically we were still the same person. Or at least, me and Scorpius were. I wasn't so sure about Rose; I still wasn't certain what had happened to her. She never seemed to let the papers and stuff bother her, and then she just changed. Like she'd snapped.

I only realised how much Rose had faded in to the backround, when Scorp pointed out her name on the list of top sixth year students that had been pinned to our Ravenclaw bulletin board. She was top, and Scorp was second. "I've never actually seen her, not even when I've stayed with you in the holidays." Scorp had commented.

"She's not really a people person," I explained, shrugging my shoulders. Scorp shrugged as well, and walked away, getting various high fives through out the evening from people that had seen the list. As I lay down for bed though, the shot conversation bugged me. Rose _was _a people person. She was a chatterbox, always laughing, always with some to say, discuss or argue about. That wasn't a slight change in personality due to pressure from the papers. That was a complete, full- blown change in how she behaved, and though and spoke. I felt guilty. I had noticed her change, and just accepted it, like everyone else had. I needed to talk to her.

The next day, after dinner, I wandered over to the Gryffindor common room after with Scorp, knocking on the portrait of the Fat Lady (she didn't appreciate it), and called out, "It's Al and Scorp!" The portrait swung open, and the buzz of the common room hit me with full force, my cousins greeted me; James, Fred, Louis and Lysander (he kind of counted by now), slapped me on the back, whilst Lorcan and Roxanne greeted me with a loud "Hey!" from the other side of the room. It was bustling and lively and it felt kind of homely. I was glad I didn't belong here though; it was too loud and nuts and crazy. Ravenclaw common was a bit crazy, but not quite as much as this. I scanned the room for Rose, desperately trying to peer past all the people. I couldn't see her. "James! Where's Rose?"

James laughed, a little confused. "Rose? Why d'you want to talk to her?"

My forehead creased. "She is our cousin, James!"

James was a little taken aback. "Jeez, Al! I just meant, you know, she's not a huge people person is she?" There it was a gain. _Not a people person. _I huffed, annoyed now. "Well, either way, do you know where she is?"

"I don't know Al! I'm not, like, policing her!" He was ever the drama queen.

"Merlin, James! Calm down! Do you not have any idea where she is?"

"No! Now go away!" James laughed and turned to talk to his mates. I rolled my eyes. Scorp turned to me, "Let's ask one of the girls in her dorm," I nodded, loking around, before spotting Sadie, pretty, popular brunette from our year. "Hey, Sadie!" She turned and smiled at us. "Have you seen Rose?"

Sadie wore the same confused look as James, "No, sweetie, I haven't. She's probably in the library or something. I doubt she's in the dorm. I didn't even see her at dinner. Sorry!" She smiled genuinely, before turning back to her friends. I looked at Scorpius, an expression of both exhaustion mingled with exasperation written across his face. "Oh come on Scorp! You admitted you never see her around school! Let's go see if she's in the library, and if she isn't, then we can give up and just talk to her tomorrow at breakfast."

He sighed, "If she's even there," I exhaled sadly. Poor Rose. No one even cared that they hadn't seen her at dinner. No one probably looked for her at dinner. Unless she's off with a boyfriend or something. I hadn't though of that. Maybe I'm being overly paranoid. I posed this to Scorp, who agreed, "You're definitely being overly paranoid, but I doubt that's what she's doing. We'd have heard, or James or Sadie would've told us that's probably what she was doing," He paused, blushing over his choice of words, "Uh, not _doing,_ but, um, with?" I rolled my eyes at his embarrassment, and set off out of the portrait hole, and down the corridor towards the library.

The library is too big. We searched for over half an hour, and still hadn't covered the whole place. It was far too big. I mean, I know I'm a Ravenclaw and everything, but that doesn't mean I like big dusty libraries, or even that I'm that smart, because I'm definitely not. I think Ravenclaw's about having a passion for learning, or, like, discovering new things. Plus eccentricity, Can't forget all the eccentricity we're supposed to have. I'm not sure whether we should trust that Sorting Hat. Maybe we ought to revise what the houses stand for or something.

Finally, Scorp caught sight of a flash of red hair off down the aisle about darker transfiguration spells and stuff, and we found Rose. She was sat leaning against the shelves, her knees up, supporting the huge book (seriously, I swear it was bigger than her), turning the pages with caution and interest. Scorp and I looked at each other. I wasn't sure how to approach her, like, 'Hey we haven't spoken in, like, three or four years, how's it going? Haven't seen you much?' Nope, not going to work. I took a deep breath, and set off towards her, hesitantly shifting my way across the old creaky floorboards, Scorpius tiptoeing with trepidation behind me. I had to give the guy credit for coming with me actually. He'd never known Rose; probably didn't know what she looked like. Wait. I tried to picture her face in my head, but I could only see twelve- year old Rose, clutching her books with excitement for her second year. Okay, that was weird; I didn't even know what she looked like. I stepped heavily on a floorboard, and Rose looked up. Definitely Rose. But she had changed so much. Her face was more refined, her blue eyes full of questions, and yet holding back, almost afraid. She was gorgeous; even though she'd been pretty in second year, I hadn't really thought about her becoming, I don't know, _mature. _Eurgh, that's a horrible word. I wasn't crushing on her or anything creepy like that, but she was hard to look away from. I suddenly realised that no one had spoken for a while. I coughed, "Um, hi Rose," I sounded really awkward and strange, but Scorpius gave me a poke in the back (thanks mate), and stepped forward a little, and sat down across from her. "Uh, Scorp and I-" He poked me again as he sat down next to me.

"Um, I mean, _I_ hadn't seen you around school for a while, so I though I'd come and say hi," It sounded beyond lame, but it was the best I had. I wasn't great at this kind of sticky, emotional kind of thing. That was one part of me that had never changed.

Rose looked really confused, and I couldn't blame her, but I wanted to know what was going on. What had made her change. She opened her mouth to speak, "Um, thanks, Albus, but I'm fine. Thank you for coming to say hi," She sounded like she was the same soft- hearted Rose I used to know, but there was something colder behind her words, like there was a bitterness there, or some kind of mocking tone. No one called me Albus. Not even my grandmother. "You can call me Al, Rose. I mean, we're friends," I was trying to start a conversation, get to know her again, before I asked her anything too deep and weird. She closed the book and laid it on the floor beside her. "Friends?" Not just bitterness, but contempt was underlying her words. As if the notion of us being friends was ridiculous. "Well yeah," I attempted, "I mean, you know-"

"Albus," She interrupted, "You haven't spoken to me in _four years._ Why are talking to me now? Do you need help with Charms?" She was angry. Angry, bitter and full of contempt. Great. The comment about charms wasn't meant kindly; somehow she knew that I struggled with that particular subject. Only my parents and James knew just how badly I had done in charms last year. He'd teased me once about failing such a 'puny' subject, before my mum had told him off. Really badly actually.

"Rose," My voice cracked a little, "What's wrong?" I don't know what happened; the raw emotion that had been displayed across her face, that had rung through her words, retreated. Her face became passive and calm and she smiled at me sweetly. "_Al, _I'm fine. Just fine. Don't worry. Enjoy your evening," She picked up the huge book in one hand, rounded the corner and strode away.


End file.
